Finland police release man held in fatal knife rampage

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Finnish police say they have released a man in connection with the Aug. 18 stabbing attack in the western city of Turku that left two people dead and eight injured.

The National Bureau of Investigation said Saturday the man who was arrested Wednesday together with another suspect “is no longer suspected of any crime.”

Abderrahman Mechkah, an 18-year-old Moroccan asylum-seeker, is suspected of the rampage which police say deliberately targeted women and is currently being investigated as murder with possible terrorist intent.

Mechkah has acknowledged the stabbings, but denies the deaths they caused were murders. Police in Finland say they think he is using a false identity.

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